Web Design Company San Diego – UX/UI, WordPresshttp://www.idiom.co
Thu, 23 Mar 2017 21:44:57 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.1How to Make Friends and Influence Peoplehttp://www.idiom.co/improve-customer-relationships-and-roi-with-customer-segmentation/
Fri, 02 Jan 2015 19:44:57 +0000http://idiom.co/?p=2055We wear different hats every day. And the way we communicate changes based on the hat we are wearing….boss, employee, friend, husband (wife), mother (father)… Just like there are many different dimensions to effective personal communication, there are many different Read on! →

We wear different hats every day. And the way we communicate changes based on the hat we are wearing….boss, employee, friend, husband (wife), mother (father)…

Just like there are many different dimensions to effective personal communication, there are many different dimensions to customer communication.

So just like you wouldn’t talk to your child like you would a buddy from college, you shouldn’t have the same communication practice for all customers.

Here are a few steps to get started with customer segmentation, and evolve from a general marketing approach to a targeted and personalized customer relationship strategy (this approach can be used for both B-to-C and B-to-B businesses).

Start with the broadest category definitions.

You can begin to segment you customer base by lifecycle stages. There are 3 broad categories that any customer base can be organized by:

New, Active, and Churn.

New Customers are individuals who have recently made their first purchase (or other transaction). They are taking you for a test drive, no basis for trust has been established yet, and they are most relatively sensitive to all aspects of their experience with your organization (website experience, digital presence, customer service, etc.)

Active Customers are those who have been recently active beyond a first purchase or predefined new customer engagement period. The degree to which they are active will be further defined when we dig deeper into sub-segmentation. The range can include brand advocates, repeat customers, and discount/special offer purchasers.

Customers in the churn stage of the lifecycle have been inactive or not made a purchase for an extended period of time.

Now this is an initial, and very high level of segmentation. But even at this stage, just by making these distinctions, you will be able to tailor your messaging and personalize your marketing efforts more effectively than with a general marketing approach. However, the deeper you go into segmentation, the greater return you start to see.

Give new customers the best experience possible

You can’t please everyone all the time, but there are steps you can take to ensure that your marketing efforts are generating definitive returns.

The best way to encourage new customers, or even unique visitors, to become long-term customers is to create a good experience. Going beyond creating a good on-site experience and providing good customer service, this is the perfect time to create additional value (extra benefits, special offers, etc.) that will make them feel welcomed and appreciated, and differentiate your organization from the competition.

Going deeper into the new customer segment, we can identify two groups that should receive extra attention.

One Time Customers are those who never returned after an initial interaction, and who you want to reengage. This is a group that can be incentivized with particularly attractive offers to return in the short term, but may or may not transition to active customers.

New Customers with High Potential are those with the highest potential long-term value. This group can be identified by using customer lifetime value forecasting models, which incorporate behavioral and demographic data to predict likely future behavior. Or a simpler , albeit less accurate, method is to take the top 5%-10% of New Customers based on the value of their first transaction and provide VIP service, long-term incentive programs, or customized offers to keep them engaged for expended periods of time.

Cluster active customers to deliver a more personalized experience.

When we use cluster modeling, we are using data to differentiate a customer base by any number of predefined factors. The goal is to identify groups within groups in ways that will maximize their interactions. One of the most effective ways to greatly increase response rates of existing customers is to use Recency, Frequency, Monetary (RFM) analysis.

Using the RFM method, The most valuable cluster are those customers who have recently, (R) engaged in multiple transactions (T) with a high monetary (M) spend. These are the customers who should receive special attention.

For every other active customer category, the analysis can be used to identify plans of action:

Customers that have recent high spends despite few purchases (high M & R) can be provided incentives to increase their frequency (F).

Customers that have a history of average spends (medium M), but with regular frequency (high F) can be reminder incentives to maintain their behaviors (R).

Define inactive customers

Customers that fall into the Churn phase of the the lifecycle can be divided into two main categories: those that are one time customers and have never reengaged, and those who were active for a longer period of time before falling off.

Each of these groups can have inherent challenges with reengagement, and more aggressive, albeit unique, messaging and offers can be employed to restart the relationship.

The bottom line is that anything you can do to create a personalized experience based on a customer’s unique segment will have a positive impact on your marketing efforts.

And the more you can specialize the messaging and segment your customer base, the more refined you can make your relationship with your customers.

]]>How to Uncover Opportunity in Datahttp://www.idiom.co/how-to-uncover-opportunity-in-data/
Fri, 19 Dec 2014 21:18:38 +0000http://idiom.co/?p=2045There is no silver bullet or magic formula that will make “Big Data” alone solve business problems. But looking at your data as a starting point to begin answering important questions is a big step towards business optimization. Here are Read on! →

There is no silver bullet or magic formula that will make “Big Data” alone solve business problems.

But looking at your data as a starting point to begin answering important questions is a big step towards business optimization.

Here are a few ways to start thinking strategically about using data to digitally evolve your organization.

Identify, Optimize, Deploy

Marketing Models Should Reflect Business Goals

Data is a tool, and just like any other digital communication tool, it needs to be used as part of a larger plan to be effective.

What are the goals of your organization?

What do you want to achieve this year?

Where do you want to be in 5 years?

Starting with a consensus of practical goals can not only generate more rapid results, it will also qualifies marketing efforts for stakeholders in a practical way because the approach is based on information that is relevant to your company, not because the latest popular application.

Identifying your specific business goals is the first step towards determining how data models can create performance improvements and competitive advantages.

Extract data from the right platforms and stay flexible.

One of the reasons many organization cite for not taking advantage of data to grow their business is that legacy platforms and software are siloed, making data acquisition a daunting task.

Often, the only obvious option to begin thinking about a data-driven strategy is to incur enormous time and asset investments to overhaul entire systems. Well, there are a few solutions to this architectural hurdle.

Firstly, in the short-term, prioritizing goals can allow quick identification and connection of the most important data so you can begin utilizing the new knowledge quickly.

Secondly, once the important data streams have been identified, you can connect siloed data into a unified reporting system` (Business Intelligence platform) to transform unstructured information into reliable, actionable analytic data.

Evolve and Grow

Change is never easy, but practical, business-relevant implementation of analytics data and predictive modeling is extremely valuable in fostering strategic, qualified organizational change.

By integrating tools that help front-line employees with their jobs and provide management with intuitive tools and reporting interfaces, you are one step closer in creating a foundation to sharpen marketing efforts, mitigate risk, and enhance operations.

]]>User Engagement is a concept that is pretty ingrained in our strategic thinking, and today we are going to look at 3 steps to strategically look at how your brand or organization engages it’s audience.

Since becoming fairly ubiquitous in the digital design and technology fields in the mid-2000’s, a wide array of definitions, approaches, and concepts of what engagement “is” has emerged.

At its conceptual core, user engagement is about creating something of value for an audience.

Well, yeah, “of course” you say, concepts are great, but what about practicality?

On a very high level, our practical definition of “engagement” is the avenues through which a company interacts with its audience and the impact the measureable results of that interaction has when all is said and done.

Now we know that outside of a specific context, those words can be fairly esoteric. Part of the reason that a universal definition of user engagement, or engagements in general, is so hard to define, is due to the fact that they can mean so many different things to so many different people.

As a recent mashable.com article deftly points out, the way Engagement manifests today is as individual to a brand or person as it is highly specific to the task, scale, or scope of the effort you are looking to engage others in.

So, if the definition is esoteric, and the application is so individual and specific, how can we possibly provide any practical guidance to start thinking about engagement for your business?

Easy, even though something is hard to define doesn’t mean it has to be hard to do.
(i.e. Think about happiness. Being happy is (ideally) an easy thing, but happiness takes many forms and can have very individual definitions.)

1. Take a good, hard look in the mirror

To start, 2 sets of questions need to be asked:

Who are we to our audience (clients) now? How are do we interact with our audience now?

Who do we want to be to our audience? How do our customers want to interact with us?

You can’t actively direct where you are going unless you know where you are and these questions will help to frame the engagement. By taking stock of the current state of things, projecting where you want to go (a product refresh, a new product launch, building rapport with a new demographic, improving customer service, building a community, etc.), and understanding how people want to be engaged, you will have more strategic information at your fingertips to work with. From Deirdre Breakenridge, adjunct professor at NYU, via Mashable,“Engagement is a function of listening to the customer voice, how they’re behaving and how they actually want to engage with us […] It’s so hard to define engagement if you’re not taking the time to truly understand how people want to interact with you.”

2. Define the Impact of the Engagement

What kind of results do you want from the engagement? Increased brand recognition, increased sales, more users, better conversion rates, and improved customer satisfaction can all be end impact goals. By deciding how you will measure an engagement’s end goal, you can begin to formulate how the actions of the engagement will take shape. But remember, the impact should be a result of creating value for your audience!

3. Define the Action(s) of the Engagement

What tools will you use to generate measureable results? If the measureable results (i.e. facebook likes, media impressions, web traffic increases, app downloads) generated by the tools of the engagement don’t lead to a quantifiable impact, then they are just vanity metrics. “500% traffic increases” or “10,000 new facebook likes” hold little meaning if there isn’t a deeper impact.

Deciding how you will engage your audience (the concept/campaign, the idea, the action) and in what medium (digital, print, mobile, all of the above, etc.) will define the measureable results, which in turn ultimately lead to a quantifiable business impact.

]]>The Progress of Process: Why We Wireframehttp://www.idiom.co/progress-process-wireframe/
Fri, 06 Dec 2013 18:58:12 +0000http://idiom.co/?p=1247Adapted from our Progress of Process AIGA San Diego talk, November 14, 2013 The practice of Wireframing is one of the most important foundational assets of any interactive design process. Implementing a strong wireframing practice into a creative process has Read on! →

The practice of Wireframing is one of the most important foundational assets of any interactive design process.

Implementing a strong wireframing practice into a creative process has much more far reaching benefits than just better products.

Well…not really. I would say the outmoded practice of delivering static Wireframes as a deliverable to check off is running its course, but the practice of planning a functional and experiential system never will.

To start out…lets take it back a little bit and put some definitions around this conversation.

As long as humans have been creating things, we have been sketching, etching, carving, and drawing out what we think the end result should be.

Call them schematics, renderings, drafts, specs, prelims, storyboards, or blueprints…they all achieve the same goal: each one gives us an understanding of how something will function or work once it is completed.

#2 – “Wireframing” Is An Entire Set Of Tools

There has been a lot of debate flying around for a few years about the validity of wireframing vs. more progressive approaches like rapid prototyping and iterative product releases.

For the way that we interweave wireframing into our design and development process, my argument is that everything (from sketches and napkin doodles, through lo-fi wireframes, hi-fi wireframes, “live” wireframes, mock-ups, rapid prototyping, iterative product releases, functional specs, content requirements, etc.) falls within the wireframe toolset. The needs of the project should dictate which tools are used, as opposed to using the same tools regardless of the project.

Just like any tool, it is the person wielding it that determines how well, or poorly, it is used.

Wireframing is Data/Design Glue (better functionality)

Wireframing is the connection between the research, and planning and design phases.

The wireframe aspect of our process is an integral and interdependent step that takes all the information that comes before it, and informs the shape of everything that comes after it.

With collaboration between our in-house experts and the counterparts on our client’s team, we translate the business requirements, initiative goals, planning, and strategy into the User Experience (UX), Information Architecture, Interface Design, User Flow Design, and Content Planning of the product. In this way, wireframing becomes a unifying visual language for everyone involved to see the translation of the project goals into a functional interactive experience.

It ensures that the “Why?” drives the engagement
Project goals are the lifeblood of any engagement, and losing sight of them can be costly, in time, money, and professional relationships. Wireframing helps to ensure that there is a rhyme and a reason for every feature that makes it into the final product.

Wireframing pushes usability and the experience to the forefront.
When business requirements and project goals are translated to visual representations early, there is more time and space to be able to test various elements of the engagement (storyboarding the engagement, content architecture, UX, user flow, interaction design). We also are able to validate usability and iteratively anticipate and design user interactions.

Removing Roadblocks – Wireframes improve client relationships

An engaged client is a better client.

Wireframing and prototyping improve communication.

As ubiquitous as our digital world has become, many business segments still have very limited exposure to behind the scenes of the digital design and development process.

When a client is brought in early and included in the process, they are better informed about the strategy and progression of the project. They are also part of the collaboration team that contributes to its creation. Through an early engagement, the client gains greater investment in the project, the decisions and strategy gain validation because of the 1:1 translation of documentation into visual language, and the end product benefits from a well mapped engagement.

We approach each project in functional teams that are scoped to meet the needs of the project. This gives us the ability the get the developer, designer, project manager, and any other assets collaborating on the project early.

Early collaboration ensures everyone is on the same page. It can lead to design/interaction breakthroughs. It allows for more brainpower to be combined from the get-go to create more successful outcomes, and it allows for early technical and functional identification.

If you are solo, either a sole proprietor or freelancer, wireframing can be invaluable in creating the space needed to identify functionality, usability, and interactions (don’t forget the “Why”!) that create an engaging and successful user experience.

More Exploration = More successful products
Explore early and often. Planning and storyboarding for different user groups, project objectives, and brand values create a wide range of ideas that can be refined, discarded, or combined for more effective solutions.

Early experience and structural definitions = more agility
With early exploration & definitions comes the ability for concurrent (agile) design and development. The functional aspects of the system can start coming on-line, for testing and validation while design assets are being created.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Sooo…there was a lot of ground covered there. But, basically the sum of all the product, client, and internal benefits are benefits to your business.

Wireframing saves time and money.

It identifies functionality early.

It allow for easier, more cost effective changes. Measure twice, cut once – It is more expensive to change completed work that build it right the first time.

Limits late stage scope creep by identifying and structuring the functional experience early.

Shift the engagement from reactive to proactive.
The real value of a digital/experiential engagement is the impact the effort has on real world metrics. Fostering objective-oriented, experience-focused business practices can evolve a reactive vendor relationship to that of a proactive strategic partner.

A proactive engagement puts the designer/developer squarely in the drivers seat when it comes to achieving the business goals through digital channels (with great power, comes great responsibility!).

This, in turn, can elevate the perceived value of the services and products you provide, both tangible (the deliverables…website, application, instillation, digital marketing campaign) and intangible (the ideation, the value of process, and the results of digital solution that makes a real world impact).

Shift the business of design from cost-oriented towards value-based positioning.

When approaching the business of design, many independents and firms are faced with the reality of an often-marginalized vendor compartmentalization. Small budgets, tight delivery dates, and an initiative in a space (digital) that is unfamiliar to most business can be intimidating factors for any company.

However, a proactive and defined approach to your business practices and process that leverages a wireframing tool set, can lead to more credible positioning, deeper experience, better products, and stronger client relationships.

]]>
3 Rules to User Connection through UX Designhttp://www.idiom.co/3-rules-to-user-connection-through-ux-design/
Sat, 05 Oct 2013 17:11:10 +0000http://idiom.co/?p=1185In this part of our UX Design series, we are taking a look strategies to connect the real world and digital world leveraging QR code technology. As a marketing tool, the QR code is a valuable asset, but it can Read on! →

]]>In this part of our UX Design series, we are taking a look strategies to connect the real world and digital world leveraging QR code technology. As a marketing tool, the QR code is a valuable asset, but it can also be a big deterrence to the user experience if the design of the experience is improperly implemented or executed.

Recently, the popularity of QR codes has risen in the U.S. to a projected average of 1 in 5 smartphone users scanning a code in the 2012. That is just under 30,000,000 (and growing) additional consumer engagements that currently exist to connect real world (analog) and digital marketing strategies.

The reasons that QR Code popularity is on the rise are varied, but they include the prevalence and accessibility of mobile technology, lowered cost of data service, and the adoption rate of the technology as a practice.

Usage is on the rise, which is great…but what about the success of the practice? That is another matter all together. We haven’t seen any hard numbers, but with around 70-80% of the QR Codes we come across being poorly or improperly implemented, we estimate that the probability of repeat usage and successful conversion rates are not nearly as high as the usage data suggests.

Today we are going to share some general recommendations for successfully adding QR codes to your marketing tool box as a way to bridge the gap between analog and digital marketing efforts.

1. Make Sure Your Environment is ready for Mobile Access

When talking about UX design, the medium of the experience must be taken into account. I can’t tell you how many times I have clicked on a QR code and it has led to un-optimized content. If you are going to push out a QR code as an element of a larger marketing effort, for the love of all that is right in the world, make sure your landing site is ready for mobile traffic! (and please…no flash content…yes, we have seen this.) The easiest way to turn off a customer is to make it difficult for the user to access the payoff of the link.

2. Make Sure the jump to digital enhances the user experience

On average, 70+% of QR scans lead to Product Information. The same, or similar information that can be found on a company’s website, or throughout the interweb. If there is no unique experience at the end of a unique journey, what is the point? When considering QR as part of a campaign, it is important to consider developing or involving supplemental information or content that is exclusively accessed through a QR code, or using the QR code as a conduit to enhance an established experience.

3. Know your audience

With 66% of smart phone users being between the ages of 18-29, and 53.4% of all QR scans coming from 18-34 year olds, it is a good bet if your product or services are geared towards that the young, affluent (and male, 60.5%) demographic, adoption and conversion of QR codes will be very easy. But that doesn’t mean that creative ways to engage users with QR codes can’t be utilized for other demographics as well.

The most important thing to remember when using QR codes as a UX Design marketing tool, as with any other strategy, is to craft an experience that is relevant to your audience and make sure that it enhances your interaction with your customer base.

]]>Why is a mobile website important? [infographic]http://www.idiom.co/why-is-a-mobile-website-important/
Sun, 01 Sep 2013 00:32:13 +0000http://idiom.co/?p=777Mobility is here to stay, that’s why. A mobile website / tailored mobile experience can help define your space in the digital landscape. And we have a chart that proves it: At a minimum, a mobile website ensures seamless visibility between Read on! →

]]>Life Engagement – how user experience is reaching beyond the digital realmhttp://www.idiom.co/ux-design-beyond-the-digital-realm/
Fri, 05 Apr 2013 23:34:38 +0000http://idiom.co/?p=726User Experience is the defining aspect of digital interaction at the beginning of the 21st Century. The barriers between our everyday analog world and our digital world are becoming more porous and we are finding new and exciting ways to enhance Read on! →

]]>User Experience is the defining aspect of digital interaction at the beginning of the 21st Century.

The barriers between our everyday analog world and our digital world are becoming more porous and we are finding new and exciting ways to enhance the analog with the sheer power and potential of the digital.

But it is really so much more than any one of those titles or descriptors. As described by Norman himself, user experience is a term that, ” cover all aspects of the person’s experience with the system including industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and the manual. Since then the term has spread widely, so much so that it is starting to lose it’s meaning… user experience, human centered design, usability; all those things, even affordances. They just sort of entered the vocabulary and no longer have any special meaning. People use them often without having any idea why, what the word means, its origin, history, or what it’s about.

Whereas the terms listed above are for the most part individual and isolated, user experience (UX Design) is the whole enchilada. It is taking everything, and I mean everything, in the strategic process of design and development into consideration in order to create a holistic product. To borrow a theme from the Petrula Vrontikis’ quote, Practice safe experiential design, start with a strategy.

Today, we are going to take a look at some examples of exceptional life engagement, or how the user experience and interaction design are expanding our human experience and leading the charge into a rich and engaged future. Enhancing the Experience – Gallery One @ The Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art has recently opened Gallery One, a first-of-its-kind interactive gallery that bridges the gap between our analog world and our digital world.

Enhancing the Experience – Gallery One @ The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art has recently opened Gallery One, a first-of-its-kind interactive gallery that closes the gap between our analog world and our digital world with a number of interactive initiatives.

Going beyond the page, this print ad utilized qr codes to engage the audience to interact with the ad. By placing their smartphone at different locations on the page, models who were strategically hidden in the ad come to life in video on the phone.

Making life more convenient – Tesco’s Home Plus (Korea) and Jumbo (Chile) bring grocery shopping to their customers

Pioneered by Korean supermarket Tesco and now being offered by Jumbo, both grocery chains rolled out virtual supermarkets in commuter dense subway stations last year. Now, commuters can shop on their way home from a busy day via QR Code and have their shopping delivered directly to their home the same day.

Making Commuting Easier – New York City “On the Go!” MTA interactive Kiosks

The 46″ touch screen kiosks being unveiled this summer will replace the MTA maps at 19 subway stations. Riders will have instant access to maps, service status, trip planning and other services all at their fingertips.

Changing the way we look at the world – Google Glass

With the $1,500 beta/explorer version of the product shipping this month, we are closer than ever to finding out if now is the future of technological life engagement, or if the early adopters are further out in front of the majority than google hopes.

]]>Responsive Web Design is a starting point, the user experience is the solutionhttp://www.idiom.co/responsive-web-design/
Sun, 31 Mar 2013 10:55:33 +0000http://idiom.co/?p=709Two of the biggest buzz phrases over the last few years has been responsive web design and adaptive web design. While a responsive or adaptive approach to digital design and development can be a successful aspect of a digital strategy, Read on! →

]]>Two of the biggest buzz phrases over the last few years has been responsive web design and adaptive web design.

While a responsive or adaptive approach to digital design and development can be a successful aspect of a digital strategy, they are by no means a silver bullet interactive solution in and of themselves. The keys to any successful digital experience are strategy, insight, research, and analysis. However, before we dive into the solution, lets take a look at the form factors of the existing mobile development options.

For those that have been busy playing Frogger on your Atari 2600 (…actually I would totally still be playing it if I still had it, bad example…how about for those that are saving files on 3.5” floppy disk? ) Responsive Web Design (RWD) is simply an elastic html/css framework that allows a website or application to scale and fit the dimensions of the device it is being viewed on (smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop). Adaptive Web Design (AWD), on the other hand, usually refers to a separate, mobile-specific environment that is developed parallel to the desktop version of an online presence. A third option, which is a blend of RWD and AWD, is something that we call Tailored Web Design

Tailored Web Design is taking the best of both worlds, adding a health dose of progressive development practices and creating unique, tailored experiences whose goals are to fulfill both the user’s needs as well as the business goals within the context of the viewing medium, rather than simply fitting content into different sized containers.

Not to go too far against the responsive movement grain, but both the Adaptive and Responsive Web Design approaches to mobile compatibility are just tools (albeit dynamic, beneficial, and functional tools), and, like any tool, the success of using them depends on making sure whoever is wielding the tool is using the right tool for the right job. The most important factor in order to get the most benefit out of these tools of digital development is to asses the specific business requirements, site objectives, and unique aspects of the project. By taking the time to look at the uniqueness of your business, we can strategically recommend which tools will most benefit your specific needs, and that is where user experience comes in.

Focus on the strategy, then use the proper tools.

In order to truly transform an online presence into an optimized, cross-platform digital experience, here are some factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Strategy, Strategy, Strategy – We begin every project with this mantra (usually in our heads, sometimes in a pre-project huddle). Examine the reasons for addressing an existing website or creating a new one. Define what goals are to be achieved. Consider how a new digital presence can better engage your audience and what can be created to make an indelible connection with viewers. The technical tools and development strategy that will be the foundation for a successful project will begin to emerge once strategic definitions have been established.

Know Thy Audience – The bottom line is by defining who the target audience is, we can create better, more specific solutions to enhance an engaging online presence. Starting with a foundational understanding of the audience, a content strategy that incorporates an audiences usage habits (desktop?, mobile?, tablet?, at home?, at work?, during the day?, during the evening?) can be defined and tailored to engage the audience across the spectrum of usage variables.

Optimize the Content to the Context– In order to create a solution that truly responds to the user, the content of the website or application needs to be optimized for the context in which it is being accessed. Tailoring the digital interaction to specific environments (by accounting for how information is accessed through different devices, and how content and actions that are relevant to the audience is optimized) allows for a more customized and engaging experience.

Responsive or Adaptive frameworks are a good start, but a framework without forethought is like a car without an engine; looks good from the outside, but probably won’t take you very far.

Inherently, different device experiences require different considerations with content architecture and interactivity. The ultimate goal is to use the strategy, research, and analysis as the engine to optimize an experience. If the focus is on optimization for the experience across platform and device and you have the right digital team in place, the best tools for the job will ultimately be utilized.

]]>Infographic Series Part 3: Most Dominant NFL Franchise since 1980http://www.idiom.co/most-dominant-nfl-franchise-since-1980-3/
Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:48:50 +0000http://idiom.co/?p=703Finishing up our infographic series, we take a look at the most dominant NFL Franchise of the last 32 years. If you want a look at the formula for the dominance scores, you can see it here, along with the Read on! →

]]>Finishing up our infographic series, we take a look at the most dominant NFL Franchise of the last 32 years. If you want a look at the formula for the dominance scores, you can see it here, along with the 15 most dominant teams since 1980. Taking an average of each team’s season dominance score since 1980, are is anyone really surprised by the top ranking teams?

]]>Better User Experience by Designhttp://www.idiom.co/better-user-experience-by-design/
Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:50:54 +0000http://idiom.co/?p=645As a designer, I can never escape the experience of design. It is everywhere. From the industrial design in the cup you drink your coffee out of to the ad design of the billboard on the side of the road Read on! →

]]>As a designer, I can never escape the experience of design. It is everywhere.

From the industrial design in the cup you drink your coffee out of to the ad design of the billboard on the side of the road to the design of the page and device you are reading this on; each and every thing in our man made world has been designed with an experience in mind.

As technology evolves, products evolve, design evolves and inherently how we experience design evolves. In my opinion, the evolution of the experience of design is a constant and should be considered on par with the laws of nature. It is a requirement, a mandate that cannot be changed. Now the genesis of that mandate, much like origins of our understanding of the laws of nature, begins with questions:

A better web experience, a more effective product interface, an easier checkout process, a more impactful real world experience, and a more efficient mobile application can all be products that are the result of goal-oriented digital strategies.

The Experience achieves the Goal

Creating effective and successful user experiences achieve business goals. A user-centered approach (to any engagement really, not just digital interactions) creates an atmosphere where the focus can shift from the bottom line business goal, to creating an indelible experience. The experience, in turn, creates a cyclical base of support whereby user (customer) engagement becomes the engine that drives the achievement of the business goals.

The Adidas Shoebox Instillation concept was a special build by Jack Agency (UK).

The ultimate goal of Adidas is most likely to increase sales. And a recent strategy to achieve that goal was limited engagement pop up stores that create an indelible user experience. A new product line was pushed out in limited release to a core audience at strategic locations and venues that corresponded with a new global ad campaign and larger product line release.

Scarcity of the Engagement + Exposure to Core Brand Audience lead to Increased Overall Consumer Awareness that equal Increased Sales of an in demand product. The user experience achieves the business goals.

User Experience in the Digital Space

Following a user-first approach, we crafted the site architecture and user interface of firefightermedic.com to focus on achieving organizational goals through user engagement.

Our strategy included creating defined user experiences based on levels of information access, creating an environment of scarcity within the user experience to drive membership growth, and developing strategic information architecture to allow the most efficient content acquisition by users.

We made the store and the resource sections as easy to use as possible.

Every detail of the user experience was crafted to make the system easy and intuitive to use.

The Results

The site and application have just recently been released, but early data and user response has been unanimously positive. Search exposure has increased overall site traffic, time on site has increased for both members and non-members, and membership conversions are steadily increasing month over month.

Three birds with one user-centered creative approach

Regardless of an experience’s medium, either digital or analog, crafting an indelible experience and taking a user-first approach to the creative process is one of the most effective methods to achieve meaningful user/customer engagement, improve the overall experience of the user and, by proxy, achieve the goals of business.